well said lefty

I went to see the San Jose Giants last night for one because I got free tickets and hadn't gone yet and two because I haven't been able to watch the real Giants lately without vomiting. I was eager to see Buster, Villalona, and Noonan in the hopes that one or two of them might show me enough to think they could be up with the big club helping out by the end of the year.

Posey was patient at the plate but that didn't help him hit the ball out of the infield in any of his 4 at bats in which he was 0 for 4. Tough to gauge how far he can advance this year but based on last night I would say he is at least a full season away from sniffing the bigs. What impressed me most about him was his arm, he has a canon and with accuracy to boot. Is it too late to get him some work at closer in case Wilson continues to suck?

Noonan looked average at best at 2B muffing a ball to his left that somehow got called a hit and hesitating on a DP grounder then only getting the out at first. At the plate he had a perfect bunt in his first at bat that was intended to sacrafice Bocock over to third after he lead off the game with a double and ended up being a base hit. The rest of his at bats were uninspiring and he is probably at least 2 and probably 3 years away from getting to the show.

Villalona reminds me of Pablo without the pudgyness. He is a big boy for sure. He had a game tying two out two strike hit up the middle but did not drive the ball in any of his at bats, didnt take pitches well, and swung at a few dirt balls. He is probably 2 to 3 years away from a chance to prove himself in the bigs.

The point is that these are our top offensive prospects and realistically they are about 4 years away from contributing at the major league level. Without a trade of some sort or a few free agent signings in the offseason, next year is going to be more of the same. We can look forward to them signing Bengie for another few years to bat 4th and clog bases while guys like Bowker, Guzman, Schierholtz, and Ishikaka show how inept their skills are with the bat. No immediate help offensively should be a huge concern for management and should prompt them to look at trading some of the young pitching we have either currently in the bigs (Cain or Sanchez) or some top prospects like Alderson. Otherwise we are wasting our time having some of the best pitching in the league without the run support to make them successful not to mention frustrating the fans who pay good money to watch this club.

The Giants will bust out a decent offensive performance (5 to 8 runs) anytime now. The problem is that they will continue to have boom-bust offense with more bust than boom because of the lack of OBP up and down this line-up. The Giants are last in the MLB in runs scored the single most important offensive stat. They are also last in the NL in OBP, and SLG while being second to last in both these categories in the MLB. So, SLG is a huge problem too, but I think the boom-bust is the more deadly problem and it traces back to OBP more than anything else. The good news is relatively speaking OBP can be fixed to a certain extent by appropriate coaching (not that the personnel on the Giants roster will ever lead the league in walks). Now if only the Giants could get that appropriate coaching...

Also, moving Rowand to the lead-off position is absolutely insanely stupid. I am glad that Rowand has suddenly started hitting better and I hope that he sustains it without going into month long slumps (although I remain skeptical that he will ever sustain league average going forward). However, I hate the fact that it happened right when Bochy moved him to the lead-off position because it is absolutely 100% stupid to have Rowand batting lead-off and almost certainly has zip to do with his move to the top of the order. It is always bad when a manager gets rewarded for stupidity but that is just the way baseball goes since random fluctuation happens and baseball is all about large sample size. However, props to obsessivecompulsive for noting that Rowand appeared to be trending slightly upward just before Bochy moved him to the leadoff... I sure wasn't prepared to believe it and launched quite a rant. And am still not prepared to believe he will continue to not suck for very long (please prove me wrong Rowand!), but that was some excellent trend spotting.

Brian Sabean has gone to market. The Giants G.M. is seeking a bat with Nick Johnson atop his list, according to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News.

In a piece posted last night, Baggarly says Sabean is dangling Matt Cain to get a feel for his value on the open-market.

Cain for an injury prone light power hitting first baseman?? I think I am going to break something. The other names mentioned in the article were guys like Huff, Derosa, Uggla, Konerko, Felipe Lopez!!!, and the only one that would be even remotely worth it, Holliday.

The season just keeps getting better and better.

You're so right to recognize that Sandval play. I think he is one of those players who is just totally immersed in the game to the exclusion of everything else when he's between the lines. I think it's the very rare ML baller who steps out there and doesn't have their head in the game but Pablo's focus, belied as it is by his ready smile, is just pure baseball. He's obviously anticipating the possibility of a throw home in that situation but with two out he could have chosen any base for the put out. The time in which he realized that he'd have to get the out at home to the execution of that plan was a few split seconds of great basaball. Blah blah blah...fun to watch.